Steelers fall to Marauders

With high hopes entering the season, the Sault Steelers now find themselves fighting for their playoff lives.

A year after completing a perfect 8-0 regular season and a trip to the Northern Football Conference championship game, the Steelers will now need to get on a roll in order to do some playoff damage after falling to the Milton Marauders on Saturday night at Rocky DiPietro Field.

Battling injuries and absences, the Steelers became a limited team offensively as Milton turned some big offensive plays into a 28-7 win over the Steelers.

The Sault falls to 2-3 with three games, including two on the road, remaining in the regular season. The top seven teams qualify for the post season.

Not showing any let down from a stunning 17-13 win over the powerful Oakville Longhorns last week, the Marauders jumped to a 7-0 first quarter lead when receiver Greg Hudak hauled in a 50 yard pass from quarterback Domenic Camastro.

Crispin Barnes, who led all receivers with 123 yards, scored on a 21 yard reception before David Joseph returned a fumble 52 yards to give Milton a 21-0 halftime lead.

With rookie quarterback Anthony Amadio, who filled in for absent starter Rob Filmore, knocked from the game after taking a ton of abuse from the Marauder defense, the Steelers turned to veteran Seth Cond.

But the news got worse as Cond broke a finger on his throwing hand in his first series under centre.

With no other options at quarterback, the Steelers were forced to play catch up with the running game as Cond was limited to two passes in the second half.

Gord Campbell scored the Steelers lone touchdown in the third quarter as the defensive lineman carried the ball into the end zone from two yards out in the jumbo package formation.

Jon Nedeljkovich completed the scoring with a four yard run for Milton in the fourth quarter.

The Steelers will head south next Saturday night for a road contest against the tough Oshawa Hawkeyes at 7 p.m.

In other NFC games on Saturday, Oakville rebounded with a 43-0 win over North Bay and Sudbury knocked off Markham 38-12. On Friday, Tri-City blanked Mega City 33-0. Quinte will battle Oshawa on Sunday.